Little White Pills Make the World Go 'round
by Wilhelm Fink
Summary: AU: After a long year of dealing with his slowly deteriorating sanity, Goten begins to think his solutions are found in the world of antidepressants and alcohol. What Goten doesn't know is that he's had what it takes to get back on track all along.


Little White Pills Make the World Go 'round

Chapter 1: Prescription

What is sanity? The dictionary likes to describe it as the state of being sane; soundless of mind. In a world full of coked up celebrities, criminal politicians and padded rooms, one can't be too sure what sanity really is anymore. "Let's just cure it with rehab!" seems to be the hot way to quote unquote 'cure' all for your addictions. It's also quite possible that if you aren't bad enough to end up in a padded room with a light bulb hanging from the ceiling and a tiny window to look out into the 'normal' outside world they'll just prescribe a bottle of tiny pills to make all of your issues go away. In all seriousness though…what percentage of the time does that actually work?

-

Goten sat himself down next to his mother in a brown leather chair that resided within a beige and wood paneled doctor's office. Throughout the past year or so, Goten was breaking down. He wasn't himself. Granted, in a world where terror constantly rains down from space or from the laboratory of a mad scientist and you were part of the exclusive group to protect Earth, it was hard to be normal; but Goten took it all in stride. He glanced over to his mother with an apprehensive look across his face. Chi-Chi smiled at her son, grabbed his right hand and gave it a soft squeeze before retracting her hand back into her lap. Goten impatiently bounced his right leg up and down like a jackhammer as he waited for his new doctor to enter the room. His eyes darted from advertisement to advertisement on the doctor's desk; Celexa, Lexapro, Ambien CR, Effexor, just to name a few. The unpronounceable, thousand letter words were beginning to give Goten a headache so he averted his gaze to the sunshine-filled window. He watched cars streak past and leave a trail of salt and ice on the busy city street. Winter was setting in on Satan City. It was mid-November and they'd already had their first significant snowfall.

A short knock came from the door and a man dressed in a white dress shirt, blue tie, navy slacks and shiny black dress shoes made his way into the room. He introduced himself and shook Goten and Chi-Chi's hands as he made his way over to his advertisement-filled oak desk. He opened up a desk drawer and fumbled around for a second or two before he pulled up a manila folder. He closed the drawer with his foot and opened the folder up. As Chi-Chi explained Goten's past dealings with doctors, allergies and all of the things that doctors deem necessary for a new patient, he began to quietly pat his hands on his thighs, making a soft drumbeat. This was his first appointment with the Satan City Professional Group. His 'case' was 'reviewed' so he could be 'accepted' for treatment. His former pediatrician had recommended that Chi-Chi set up an appointment after previous psychiatric help did nothing for Goten's frame of mind. If anything it made him worse. On one occasion for example, the medicine he was prescribed turned him extremely irritable and violent. The smallest thing set him off and he immediately took it out on the nearest thing. Lucky it was only his mattress or pillows. Scared out of her mind for her son's well being, Chi-Chi threatened to call 911 if Goten didn't calm down. It was unfortunate that Goten's idea of calming down at the time was to hold a pillow over his face. It got so bad Chi-Chi was forced to remove Goku from his training of Uub to tend to his son, who was crying out to be with him.

"Now Goten. How do you feel right now?" the doctor asked him.

Goten snapped out of a daydream and shook his head a bit. "I feel good. I've been doing well ever since the 'incident',"

The morning after Goten had seemingly lost his mind, he was taken to his psychiatrist at the time and was instantly told to double his doseage, stop taking his sleeping pills and also consider beginning treatment for ADHD as well. Goten stared down the doctor and told her that he would not double the dose, since it was the pills that made him feel that way in the first place, nor would he start taking ADHD medication at this time. He absolutely refused to keep drugging himself up. His parents both agreed with him and that was the end of their visits with that particular doctor. Goten started to think that they really didn't care about who you are or what you do. They know that you're there in their office, they've already got your money and they're ready to drug you up until you're happy again; if you could call it that.

The doctor nodded at Goten's response. "That's good to hear. Now tell me, on a scale of one to ten of how good you feel. Ten being the best and one being a bit depressed,"

Goten smiled and began making a circling motion around his face with his index finger. "Don't you see this face? That's a ten,"

His mother gave a short laugh and the doctor smiled. His pen immediately met the sheet of paper that was contained in the manila folder that had Son Goten pasted on the top tab. Still restless, Goten lifted his right leg up and rested it on his left knee. He placed his hands on his ankle and moved his foot back and forth. The doctor finished writing and began asking his mother questions.

"Was Goten a happy child?"

"Oh yes very happy,"

"Any complication with pregnancy; everything was normal correct?"

"Correct,"

"You mentioned that you have had him in and out of treatment throughout his childhood. What are the particular reasons?"

"Well as a child his father wasn't around so he did feel a bit lonely. He also had trouble in school with kids picking on him. He'd come to me every morning and try to play sick so he wouldn't have to go to school that day. That's how bad it got for him. When high school rolled around it seemed to change. He began enjoying school…"

Goten cut her off. "It's not so much that I enjoyed school. I just liked going to see my friends,"

"And how was your high school career Goten?" the doctor questioned.

"It was normal I suppose. I didn't really like it. I would spend more time doodling on my papers than actual work,"

"So you had a hard time concentrating in school?"

Goten's knee began to hurt so he placed his foot back on the ground and straightened his posture up a little. "I could concentrate on the things I was interested in but other than that I just had no interest in anything else. I mean I could do it if I had to but I wasn't a fan of schoolwork,"

"You just diagnosed yourself,"

"Huh?"

The doctor smiled. "Most people with ADHD cannot concentrate on anything, even if they want to. Since you're a bright child, you found a way around this,"

Goten raised an eyebrow at this and slumped down into his chair. The doctor and Chi-Chi began going over treatment options and both decided to go with a 75mg pill named Effexor to try and get Goten on track. He had a horrible job that was sucking his soul right out of his body, he was beginning college in a few months after taking the first semester off to take care of his job situation, which he didn't because for some reason couldn't get motivated enough to get off of his ass and just do it. The doctor thought that these pills would help him get to where he wants to be. Goten grabbed three sample boxes of Effexor that the doctor had fished from his desk and a piece of paper with an illegible words that the pharmacist was supposed to know was for his anti-depressant prescription.

The appointment ended with a scheduling for a two-week check up. Goten exited the brick building with his mother into the cold winter air. He looked down at his gloved hands full of samples and prescriptions and frowned.

_For Christ sake…what did I get myself into_


End file.
